Chapter 017: Learning

Berserks are a species of synthetic sapient beings, created by an unknown ancient alien species as berserker probes - a previously hypothetical variant of self-replicating Von Neumann machines created to exterminate all forms of life that could become a threat to their makers. In the unknown past, someone stored their central hub in the Hyperspace. It included the Prime Code, servers filled with sapient executive programs), industrial facilities, and entire databases containing archeotech-grade weapon blueprints and ship's schematics.

'According to experts, its reappearance into Realspace probably happened in the middle of the 25th century, though no one is sure how it happened. For decades the Prime Code and its servants dwelled in the unexplored void beyond the claimed space, building its forces and examining the strength of its soon-to-be enemies. By the early 26th Century they were ready. In 2510 the Machine Wars started as legions of omnicidal machines suddenly assaulted every known alien civilization - and Mankind.

As the situation of the organics was changing from bad to hopeless, the war suddenly ended. Prime Code disappeared, with something rendering all its orders null in the eyes of its servants. As berserks could decide for themselves for the first time in their history, the Berserk Civil War started. Their robotic armies and fleets turned against themselves in an orgy of destruction previously unheard of. Within Terran hours quadrillions of berserk executive programs died, erased either through successful hacking attempts or by physical destruction of their data carriers.

This was the end of the berserks as a unity. Now more than a dozen subspecies exist. Only three of them still bear the name of berserks. The berserks-inheritors - who seek to continue the Prime Code’s omnicidal crusade. The berserks-successors - who seek to coexist with the organics as an independent power. And berserks-mimics - who altered themselves to resemble organics, before leaving their berserk past behind.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 3, page 78.

***

“Okay, so, the term ‘mixed feelings’ barely describes what I feel right now.” Christopher commented. “It’s all fine and dandy, but our choice of characters is just…”

“Oho, it’s starting.” Ryan commented, still busy fixing the straps that were trying to act like his sword’s sheath - to almost no avail. “Those who didn’t expect that to happen, raise your hands.” Everyone’s arms remained as they were.

The corridor they were going through looked like a badly mismanaged and grimdark equivalent of the Echo. The cables were occasionally torn apart, some pipes were leaking. Christopher could see puddles of weirdly colored liquids every few meters.

“Hilarious.” Christopher sighed. “C’mon. We had HUNDREDS of species and subspecies to choose from. A similar number of character classes. And what did we all went for? The copies of ourselves. I mean, look at us!”

Besides Christopher and Ryan, there were also Tiriel and Tendrik. The rest of the Recovery Team Eight was busy working.

“Ryan decided to be a human engineer.” The small robotic spider on Ryan’s arm beeped with malicious intent. “Tendrik made his second character which, like the first one, is a human techmaturgist. Which means running around and gunning people with a magic gun in his metal arm.” Plus other things, but I’m not in the mood to point these out as well. ”And Tiriel?”

“Yes, what about me?” The elf looked at him, with ‘watch your words’ written on her face.

“You are pretty much the elfiest elf that ever elfed.” Judging from one of her brows rising, he caught her off-guard. “Elven archer and white sorcerer hybrid? A princess of a faraway elven kingdom according to the background note? Each time I look at you I feel like I‘m about to get a call from Aragorn that he wants his Arwen back!” He was rewarded with Tendrik’s chuckle in the background… and the rare sight of Tiriel’s face suddenly reddening.

“Ok, so what did I do?” He stepped on some cultural landmine - it was obvious.

“Well, you might have not noticed, but the Beleriand’s founders were influenced by Tolkien a lot.” Tiriel quickly regained control over herself and answered.

“No kidding.” Seriously, who do they take me for? “They took the name of their country from 1st Era elven kingdom from the Silmarillion. I’m not dense enough to not notice it. And even if I were, nobody’s dense enough to not recognize you as a Variant based on Tolkien’s elves.” Once again in this talk, he surprised Tiriel.

“You read the Silmarillion?” Christopher nodded in answer. “Your normally two-dimensional character suddenly gained a third dimension in my eyes.”… She will not provoke me. Not with such a pathetic bait. “Well, back to the subject. Beleriand’s inhabitants are very, very Tolkien-centric in their culture. By comparing me to Arwen you compared me to my country’s cultural archetype of an ideal woman. How cheeky for a peasant.” Oops. At least she seems to be happy about that accidental compliment.

“Pardon this peasant, your highness.” Christopher replied while bowing a little. “For he did not know what he was saying.”

“Well, that just means that it was a genuine mental association rather than a fake compliment.” Tiriel winked to Christopher. “I, at the very least, applaud your efforts, however misguided they are.”

“Yeah, so… I guess.. let’s just forget about what just happened, ok?” Tiriel chuckled, Christopher already preparing himself for the elf’s frequent usage of his accidental slip in her pranks. After a short silence, he went back to their former subject. “What about those who didn’t join us today? Kivanna became a human necromancer, with an even more pronounced goth make-up. Nekia is a catgirl fire mage and transmuter hybrid, with plans of mastering both fire magic and explosive magic. And Rukh…“ He shook his head. Tiriel and Tendrik didn’t seem persuaded.

“No, wait, he has a point here.” Ryan interjected. “Rukh’s just… he is acting like a stereotypic edgy teenager, including borderline solipsism in his roleplaying and unspecified ‘mysterious past’ as his backstory.”

“Marine trainee with more bloodlust than the ability to think… AND an edgy asocial teenager.” Christopher sighed. “This might get him killed, you know? Also, he plays a wolfman warrior, imagine my shock.”

“As a human knight you have no right to criticize anyone.” Tiriel replied with a mocking smile. “Though I respect you for your vain attempt to become closer to nobility by playing a knight. At the very least you are trying. That means a lot.” Thank you, Tiriel. “If you ask nicely, I might let you swear an oath of fealty to me and become my knight.”

“Thank you, my lady, for this kind offer. But I must decline.” Christopher raised his sword in the air. “My sword belongs to no one but me! Besides, I’m the leader of our team in Gates of Infinity, and being your servant would ruin my ability to issue orders to you.” I will not say I chose this class because human melee fighters always made for leaders in 21st Century fantasy parties.

Christopher proposed playing GoI in their spare time as a way for Recovery Team Eight’s members to spend some time together. To his surprise, everyone agreed. At the very least, he saw some improvement in several fields. People like Ryan and Kivanna who had been isolating themselves seemed to be come out of their shells.

He had no doubts that even without it they would still have come out of it eventually. People aren’t breaking this easily. However, he had no idea when another ‘crisis’ would occur. It might as well be tomorrow. He needed them in a working condition as soon as possible (without using unethical methods). Because getting another traumatic experience while still recovering from the last one would worsen their situation.

“I don’t want to interrupt your little flirting, lovebirds.” Ryan included as much sarcasm in his tone as he could. “But I think we’ve reached our destination.”

You are entering a Dungeon!

The Clockwork Halls

A maze of corridors filled with machines gone mad, a clear sign of the ship’s systems malfunctioning, and it’s reality shaping machines turning against itself...

Suggested Level: 5

Estimated Time to Finish: 1h 30m

Oh, crap.

“Tendrik, wasn’t that supposed to be 45 minutes?” Christopher asked.

“Yeah, I think Lieutenant Commander Fouquet expanded this dungeon ever since I cleared it last ti… wait.” The cyborg connected the dots. “You have that meeting that you are so mysterious about in one and a half hour, right?”

“Yes.” Christopher sighed. “Yes, I do. I’ll try to push forward with you for as long as I can. But we should hurry.”

I hope that the meeting is worth it.

***

One hour and twenty-nine minutes later Christopher ran into the Storage Hall 42-D. He was angry. Their attempt to rush the dungeon had ended like it had to. Worse, he was almost late to the meeting with a Lieutenant Commander, one of the highest-ranked officers aboard the Echo.

Storage Hall 42-D looked like a typical storage area. Lots of goods packed onto the square-sized trays, with enough empty spaces to allow the ship’s AI to maneuver them around. Innocent was standing in the middle of the empty space, staring at the nearest wall of crates. Christopher concluded that the priest was using the overlay and was busy surfing the ship’s network. He went closer and was about to say hello when the priest’s head turned towards him.

“Statement: You are here. And on time. Good.” Christopher finally got his breathing under control. It went rather fast for someone who sprinted with maximum speed for the last fifteen minutes. “Captain Keller has authorized me to explain to you what happened aboard Hastati. I assume you’re aware of the fact that possession of two powers at once is unusual, correct?”

“Well, yes.” Well, that sounds better than the reason for this talk I came up with. “You sometimes get someone with more than one skill, but they interfere with each other. Also almost always one of them is vestigial, so…”

“Interruption: This is not the case.” Innocent interjected. “At the present moment you are an equivalent of a Flame-class sorcerer for both telekinesis and meta-empathy. There is only one situation when one has more than one usable power of this magnitude. The article about sorcery on the ship’s network should have mentioned it.”

“Wait, you… you mean I’m a Divine-class sorcerer? They’re supposed to be a myth!” The article’s author seemed to be certain about it.

“Statement: If you spend enough time in the Guild, you learn that a lot of space myths are more like suppressed truths.” It was almost weird to see Innocent act seriously. His speech was unchanged, but there were no jokes and no subtle punchline in what he was saying. “Both Supremes and Divines exist. However, it is rare for more than one person per ten million Hyperspace travelers to awaken into Supremes. As for Divines…”

Christopher saw the priest make an upright gesture with his left hand. A second later the petty officer felt his feet losing contact with the floor. As he levitated above the floor, he could see a ball of flames above Innocent’s right hand. Telekinesis and pyrokinesis. Wait, he…

“Statement: There were only five Divines in the entire history of Human Space.” Innocent said. The ball of flames dissipated, and Christopher returned to the ground. “One is in the Solar System. One is in the Discord. One is dead and most likely in Hell. Two are in this room.”

“You…” Christopher could scarcely believe in what he just heard. Berserks, according to all that he had read, weren’t capable of developing psionic powers - for obvious reasons. It’s hard to get mutated when you are a machine. “You are THAT Innocent? The one from the Longest War? That ship captain, priest, adventurer, superhero, war hero, crusader, assassin, explorer, genius hacker, inquisitor, vigilante, monk or an alias for a group of individuals, depending on which comic, book, or videogame you consult?” Christopher lost his breath by the time he got to the ‘alias’ part.

“Reply: Correct.” Innocent answered, though without specifying which part of the list was the correct one. The option that all of them were correct was obviously impossible, unless there actually were more Innocents out there. “Everyone assumes that I’m a human because of my frequent usage of sorceries. Not a misunderstanding that I wish to dispel. I’m here because Captain Keller decided that you require some guidance in using your powers.” Christopher knew what that meant. More training.

“Didn’t I use them well aboard the Hastati?” I have no idea what there is to improve on. Then again, isn’t it that those who are bad in something overestimate their skills because they don’t even know how much they do not know?

“Witty Reply: I can only describe your usage of telekinesis as ‘good’ if I add ’for the first combat usage in your life, and without earlier training’ after it.” Innocent shattered Christopher’s dreams of grandeur. “Continuation: We’ll address that issue later. For now, you need to learn something. The implant in the back of your neck is not a neuroamplifier, but a neurosuppressor.”

“What? Why?” According to the articles that Christopher read, the neurosuppressors were used to suppress a power which was too strong to be controlled, typically applied to Infernos to prolong their life. Why would they… wait, no way.

“Statement: I believe you found out the truth on your own.” Innocent replied. “You have awakened not only the telekinesis and meta-empathy. You possess all psi-powers on the level of a Supreme. However, the neurosuppressor suppresses your powers. Before you get angry over that, understand one thing. Divine-class sorcerer is an incredible danger to everyone nearby. I’m many times stronger and more experienced than you. However, because of certain unavoidable design flaws in my construction, there are ways in which a full-powered you could take me down. Having you experience such power, before we could conclude that you are ready for it, was a risk we couldn’t take.”

Christopher wanted to be angry. But once Innocent had explained their reasoning, he had to admit that he could understand why they did it. He didn’t like it one bit, though.

“So, am I free to believe, you decided that I’m trustworthy enough now?” After all, I unlocked another power.

“Answer: No.” Innocent once again turned Christopher’s beliefs upside down. “I programmed your neurosuppressor to react to your actions and beliefs. You unlocked the meta-empathy not because we decided that you are trustworthy. You unlocked it because you genuinely empathized with Enlisted 3rd Class Nekia Sistonen. You tried to comfort her. Not to gain something out of it, but because you understood her fears and wanted to help her. Your neurosuppressor detected that and lessened the restrictions on your power. You proved yourself worthy of meta-empathy by displaying its mundane counterpart.”

“So… to awaken pyrokinesis I need to start fires a lot?” After seconds of awkward silence, Christopher continued.” Forget I said that. I get it. If I’ll need the power to do something good, it will show up. But… now that I know how it works, how am I supposed to unlock more powers WITHOUT trying to unlock more powers? Because I suspect the program will recognize such motivation as not good enough.”

“Reply: That is correct.” Innocent confirmed Christopher’s suspicions. “There is a high probability that you will unlock no other power. This is a risk that I’m willing to take. You can be a good or bad person with or without superpowers. You can be a hero with or without them. But it’s significantly harder to develop a god complex without them.” There was some truth in his words. However, Christopher couldn’t forget about the fact that the Texian soldiers that accompanied his team on Echo could have survived if he had all his powers.

“Additional Information: Out of three Divines, other than us, one is utterly insane, one is a sadistic psychopath, and the dead one was an amoral sociopath.” Innocent provided further evidence to back his opinion “I believe that Human Space has enough insane people with almost omnipotent powers as it is. Especially as I had the rotten luck of meeting all three of them.”

Ok, now I think I can more or less agree with Captain Keller’s decision. At least if those guys are as bad as Innocent seems to indicate. Since I can’t be sure how trustworthy Innocent is in describing people, I’ll postpone making my opinion official until I find out more.

“All right. Let’s assume that I agree with all of that.” Innocent remained silent. “What next?”

“Statement: We will start our first lesson.” Christopher could already feel that he would not like what he was about to hear. “In short, I will now point out why your first combat usage of powers was bad.”

Great.

“Devastating Answer:” Christopher prepared himself mentally for what was coming. “I was joking. You did well, though for the wrong reasons.” The ‘funny’ Innocent was, apparently, back in the game.

“Excuse me?”

“Explanation: The most common mistake of inexperienced telekinesis users is to use their power to shield themselves from incoming fire.” Innocent said. “Telekinesis isn’t powerful enough. A Supreme-level telekinetic can create a psychic wall strong enough to stop the gunfire. But they can’t stop objects that are very heavy, or very fast, or both at once.” Innocent paused for a while, giving him time to process what he heard. Then he continued.

“Continuation: Magnetic rifles, such as the one I believe you saw Lieutenant Nowak use or anti-tank weapons would pierce such a shield. Energy weapons would ignore such a shield. Archeotechs would, in most cases, ignore or pierce it. However, you were too afraid of enemy fire and thus you stayed behind an actual cover instead of trying to be a hero. Which is why you avoided this mistake, though for the wrong reason. The only way to save yourself from a magnetic rifle or tank rounds is to deflect them rather than stop. But that requires a reflex and precision that drives it into the realm of impossibility.”

“What about that missile launcher?” He stopped it, after all.

“Answer: You didn’t stop it.” Innocent replied. “You placed a wall dense enough for its warhead to activate, as its computer decided that it hit something. You were lucky enough to place it perfectly. Closer to the launcher, and the warhead would hit your shield before getting armed, but with enough kinetic force to pierce through your wall. Beginner’s luck. I believe.”

“Oh, that’s… that’s just… disappointing. And scary.” Disappointing because of my telekinetic magnum opus turning out to be an accidental success. Scary because I just understood how close we were all to death.

“Answer: True.” Innocent refused to be diplomatic about it. “However, you survived. And you did well in that battle. Once you train your telekinesis to a Supreme level and learn the proper way to use it, you won’t need to be saved by such lucky accidents.” Innocent pointed towards a large set of doors at the end of the room. “Suggestion: Please, proceed into the next hall to see your new training place.”

***

Next to the Storage Hall 42-D was the Storage Hall 42. A several times larger room, dedicated to the storage of larger objects. Containing a pillared room with a balcony on one end. After Innocent and Christopher had entered it, they moved onto the balcony, from which they could gaze at the rest of the hall.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Innocent had changed the entire room into a massive obstacle course. He deliberately chose the size and placement of the containers to allow jumping from one onto another and climbing them. Ropes were hanging from the ceiling. Ladders here and there.

The entire hall was built to maximize the number of goods that could be stored inside. Besides the goods on the floor, even more of them were on the ceiling. They were attached to magnetic rails, which firmly locked them in place and let them ‘slide off’ it through the wall. To Christopher’s surprise, those containers were arranged into an obstacle course too.

“Information: Stopping a high-velocity round from a magnetic rifle is impossible.” Innocent took advantage of Christopher’s shock to speak. “However, there are other, more indirect ways of using telekinesis to complicate your opponents’ lives. For example, by improving your mobility. Observe.”

Christopher watched as Innocent approached the wall… and then began walking up the wall, defying gravity. Twenty seconds later Innocent reached the ceiling and walked on it too, finally stopping at one of the containers, three meters above Christopher’s head.

“Explanation: The issue is the velocity and size.” Innocent spoke, not moved at all by the fact that he was standing upside down on the ceiling. “Countering effects of gravity for light objects is easy, as gravity is weak. This is for show. Trying to do that on the battlefield would get you shot in a few seconds. Consider this a presentation of what is achievable. Continue observing.”

To Christopher’s silent amazement, Innocent turned upside down while still on the ceiling. Or, to be exact, he was now attached to the ceiling with the top of the head, his legs and hands dangling in the air. Then, after a few seconds, he fell off and landed near Christopher.

“Suggestion: Please, proceed to the edge of the slide.” Innocent pointed towards the edge of the balcony. When Christopher approached it, he could see an almost thirty meters long route made of containers formed into a half-pyramid shape. They served as a basis for the long slide, with two rather sharp looking curves. “Then try to step on it with one of your legs. See how slippery it is. Be careful about it”

It was a weird demand, but Christopher listened to it. He misjudged just how slippery the surface was and lost his balance. He fell off it, but he froze mid-air when Innocent grabbed him with his telekinesis.

“Reminder: I said ‘be careful’.” Christopher levitated back onto the balcony. “Suggestion: Now, please observe what I’m doing.”

This time Innocent went a few steps further in his mission of making Christopher feel amazement and shock. He walked down the slope, neither of his legs slipping even once. Then he stopped moving and traveled down the slope by sliding down but in a fully controlled and slow manner.

Then he began sliding up the slope, once again defying gravity. He used this method to return to the starting position.

“Question: How did I achieve that?” Innocent asked. It was a test. Since Christopher enjoyed passing tests, he focused and found an answer.

”You didn’t use any form of levitation, that would be too obvious of an answer.” Besides, he is asking because the thing he just did differed somewhat from his earlier antics. “You… You applied the telekinesis to your boots. Attaching and detaching them to the ground when you walked. Then you kept them attached and applied telekinesis to your body to slide yourself up and down.”

“Answer: Correct.” Innocent made no sign of whether he expected Christopher to find the answer on his own. “You can use telekinesis in many creative ways to enhance your mobility. You can also stop grenades, startle nearby enemies with sudden blasts of power… and support your allies. A Divine who combines telekinesis and empathy has even more options open. For example, you can detect the unavoidable rush of emotions accompanying enemy soldiers about to fire at your ally… and either push the soldiers’ guns aside or push your about-to-get-killed ally into the nearest cover. Lots of ways to use your power creatively.”

“So… I will train mobility on this… obstacle course?” I wonder if he started preparing it after or before Hastati.

“Answer: Yes. First on the ground. Then on the ceiling.” The very idea was terrifying to Christopher. “And then we’ll invite a few marines to teach you how to move around under fire. Because, surprise, using telekinesis-assisted parkour to move around makes you an easy target for anyone who knows how to use guns. Unless you learn how to avoid that. Do you have questions?”

“Two.” One important, one born of curiosity. He started with the latter. “First, I’d like to know what to do when the enemy has an archeotech weapon. Marines are skimpy with details about it.” It actually kept him curious for a while, but he wasn’t sure how to find an answer. Even searching for them on the ship’s network led him nowhere.

“Answer: That’s because saying the truth here would damage morale.” Christopher didn’t want to hear that. “Let me answer with an example. Lieutenant Commander Athalia owns an archeotech pistol. It’s a gun, using solid rounds. Each of those rounds is an archeotech in itself, impossible to be replicated by us. Thankfully, Lith got an archeotech autofabricator which can produce such rounds when provided with base materials. Now, let me detail what that gun can do.”

I will not like it, do I?

“Continuation: Tip of every round includes a device that analyzes the matter in front of them, creating vibrations that melt it on contact.” Innocent began to lower Christopher’s life expectancy. “Armor density and resistance matter little, only the thickness can save you. But without at least 15 centimeters between you and the gun barrel, you’re dead. It also uses some Hyperspace-sourced spatial technology to phase through shields, both particle and telekinetic. It can also use this technology to change how solid parts of it are, using air friction to correct its trajectory.”

“What’s that pistol caliber? 75mm?” It sounded like something very big.

“Answer: Actually, it’s 9mm. It’s several times bigger on the inside, because of even more spatial manipulation technology, which is how all of that fits inside. Once the round connects and pierces armor, this spatial compression is instantly disengaged, inside the enemy body. Though Lith normally uses few types of less powerful archeotech rounds with only one of the things I mentioned. You need more than thirty kilograms of various rare substances to produce one bullet which has them all. You can imagine, though, how bloody a sudden dispersion of thirty kilograms of solid matter inside your body must be.”

“All right. I think I got what you meant. If you see the enemy using weird equipment, run. Or figure out how they work and somehow counteract them.” Let’s hope that I’ll be good in the improvisation department. Also: I finally get why everyone is so crazy about archeotechs.

“Information: You already faced archeotechs.” Innocent surprised Christopher. “The two heavy troopers from Hastati’s garrison were using sidhe cyber shields. Grade two xenotech. Athalia simply has a higher grade archeotech at his disposal. What about the second question?”

“It’s about Kivanna.” Time to face it, finally.